


Shattered But Not Broken

by campsuga



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:35:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23185633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/campsuga/pseuds/campsuga
Summary: Oikawa Tooru comes home to his apartment with the pressures of college life finally taking a toll on him.
Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru
Comments: 6
Kudos: 54





	Shattered But Not Broken

Oikawa Tooru walked through his off-campus’ apartment’s front door with shaky hands. He stood in the genkan with one fist closed against his keys, the other gripping his backpack tightly. He expels a breath he didn’t realize he was holding and the tears welling up in his eyes fell uncontrollably. He managed to toe off his shoes and drop his backpack before curling up in a ball on the couch. He bawled his eyes out, emotions so raw he couldn’t help but whine and wail into the couch cushions. At times, his crying got so bad that he needed to find timing to get a good draw of breath. He gripped the throw blanket until his knuckles turned white. His voice sounded hoarse and spent but he couldn’t stop crying.

He came from his last class of the day. He was starting to fail it. Well, not really failing but his grades were slipping too much that he might end up losing his full-ride scholarship. There was another subject that was starting to get rocky. All that one needed was to pass an additional research paper to help pull his grades up. A research paper he absolutely had no time for. Not with the burden of the rest of his subjects, plus volleyball practice.

He was the only freshman that was a regular player, but he still needed to step it up to keep up with his senpais. In high school, he was Oikawa Tooru. In college, he was nobody. His teammates were all elite players from their own high schools from different prefectures, all wanting to make an impact on college volleyball, some of them also eyeing a spot on the national team, just like Oikawa.

However, Oikawa thinks that his teammates weren’t as pathetic as him. For one thing, he was missing home. So bad. He wasn’t able to go home for summer vacation, spending it training and getting ahead of his studies. During his first term in college, he realized how big of a gap he needed to bridge in terms of skills and fitness. His teammates could run faster and jump higher. It was just that his setting skills were a smidge better than the other setters and he had the most potential to grow. But that was the thing, it was all potential. He had to make that potential come out. So he skipped coming home for the summer and spent his summer vacation training, putting on muscle and improving his endurance and agility.

When he wasn’t training, he spent his time reading up on his more advanced STEM subjects. His path to becoming a world-class astronomer started with taking up his undergraduate degree in Physics. It wasn’t his best subject but a necessary benchmark if he wanted to get into the field of astronomy that he wanted. He had to work very hard for his grades, which entailed a lot of late nights and lost weekends.

Winter break wasn’t for another couple of weeks, but he missed home so much. He knew it was just one of those days that sort of gets dumped with everything that could possibly go wrong. He knew but he couldn’t take it anymore. His body shook with how much he just wanted to go home and pretend that college never happened. He wanted to be back in his high school and train with his old team. He wanted to go out and have fun or have a day when he could sit on the couch, binge on Netflix and just zone out with a box of pizza and a six pack of root beer.

It was late afternoon when he got back to the apartment and it’s been a couple of hours since, Oikawa couldn’t keep up this pity party any longer with the laundry list of things he had to do. His breathing had finally steadied, and his tears have all dried up. He didn’t have to look in the mirror to know he looks like a mess. He sat up, still gripping the blanket and managed a couple of deep breaths to finally stabilize himself. The front door swung open and he turned to see Iwaizumi with eyes laden with surprise.

“Tooru-“

“I’m OK, Iwa-chan. I watched this really sad video of a puppy getting rescued and I just got a little carried away.”

“Bullshit!” Iwaizumi put his stuff on their tiny two-seater dining table and headed for the couch. He sat opposite from Oikawa and opened his arms without saying another word.

After finally being able to stop himself from a bout of uncontrollable wailing, he really didn’t want to go back to being an emotional wreck but Iwaizumi’s eyes were soft and his arms were inviting. Oikawa dove towards the open hug. He sat on Iwaizumi’s lap and dropped his head on the other’s shoulder with both of his arms wrapped around Iwaizumi’s neck. Iwaizumi, in turn, hugged Oikawa’s back and head with one hand while patting Oikawa’s knee with the other.

No words were exchanged as Oikawa sobbed and let the tears fall, his hands gripping tighter and tighter until finally, after several more minutes, his hands loosened. It took a good half hour, but Oikawa was now again at a point where he was calm and could control himself.

When Oikawa took one big sigh, Iwaizumi took that as a sign to finally pull Oikawa from him and kiss the other’s forehead. He cupped Oikawa’s face and planted a kiss on his lips that have been soaking in tears (and most probably snot, as well).

“Iwa-chan.”

“Ssshh, Tooru. Don’t speak, OK? Please, please, please just let me finally take care of you. OK?” Oikawa paused and finally nodded, and gently laid his head back on Iwaizumi’s shoulders. “I told you to not keep all of it by yourself. I know it’s been hard but please, let me in. We can’t be in it together if you won’t let me in.”

“B-but Iwa-chan is already so busy! You’ve got medical school and a part-time job! You’re so busy that you can’t join the volleyball team! I can’t add to that!”

Iwaizumi flicked Oikawa’s forehead before pressing his own against it, “Stupid Oikawa. If we can’t be in a functional relationship now, then how are we going to get a grip on things when we’re older? This isn’t high school anymore; we have separate lives now, we don’t have the same homework, and we don’t belong to the same team anymore.” Oikawa’s sniffling seemed to be picking up again but Iwaizumi beat him to it, “However, unlike high school, we go home to the same place, we sleep in the same bed and occasionally, I get to make you breakfast.” Oikawa let out a small chuckle.

“Iwa-chan.” Oikawa says softly, almost a whisper.

“Look, I gave your coach a call. You’re taking tomorrow’s practice off. Tomorrow, we’ll sleep in a bit then figure out what we have to do for your subjects and then call your scholarship and just touch bases and brown nose a bit. I know you miss home. Break’s almost here, just hold on for a bit more and make do with just me until then.”

“Wait, what, Iwa-chan, what did you-“

“Shut up, Oikawa! Just let me take care of things. Just because you’re not boyfriend of the year doesn’t mean I can’t be. The past few days I knew you were a ticking time bomb and you were being tight-lipped, so I did some snooping on my own. I called your coach and your captain. I also called Sugawara because I know you two share that one lab class.” For the first time since Oikawa got home, he started crying tears of joy.

“Oi! Stop that, Tooru. Come on, let’s eat. I’ve got take-out and a 2-liter bottle of root beer that has your name on it.”

“Iwa-chan.” Oikawa said softly and with so much love and respect for his boyfriend of two years and friend for almost all of the years he’s been alive.

“Never lock me out again, OK? Or I swear to god, I’ll tell your sister.”

“You wouldn’t!”

“I would if I have to. Now, get up! I’m hungry. Oh wait, on second thought, take a shower, you look horrible.” Oikawa faked a gasp but smiled afterwards. “Go! Make it a quick one. I want to start a movie early.”

“Interstellar?”

“What? No! Godzilla, the newest one.”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“Iwa-chan! I thought you were going to spoil me tonight!” Oikawa huffed and started to stomp towards their bathroom.

Iwa-chan reached out to Oikawa and gave his butt a good slap, making the red-eyed setter jump back, “Who says I won’t before, during and after the movie?”

A small gasp escaped Oikawa before he folded his lips in his mouth, trying to stifle a smile. With a breathy and raspy voice, realization that he has the best boyfriend in the world and excitement with what’s in store for the rest of the night, Oikawa breathed out, “Iwa-chan.”

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, I havent uploaded anything in months (and havent finished a lot of started fics) that I just pushed this one out of me and threw it out before I had a chance to “improve on it further”
> 
> A perk in the times of social distancing. Stay safe, everybody!


End file.
